In the summer of 1880, the siren song of a lucky silver find in the mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, isn't the only thing that leads folks into temptation. Although possible investment in Leadville's silver mines is a main reason that former president and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant is now touring this city at the top of the Rockies, others in his retinue and in town are enticed by other visions. Political aspirations fuel the dreams of young John Quincy Adams Wesley and his mother, while itinerant fire insurance mapmaker Cecil Farnesworth struggles against the seductive call of State Street, Leadville's red-light district. As part owner of the Silver Queen Saloon, Inez Stannert has often observed the ruination that comes from yielding to temptation.
